1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to improvements in a power plant for an automotive vehicle, and more particularly to a locational relationship between a transaxle and an engine in a front engine front drive type automotive vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a power plant for an autmotive vehicle of the front engine front drive type, it is well known that a transmission and a final drive unit including a differential are combined to form a transaxle which is joined with an engine, in which the final drive unit projects laterally from the transmission. It is usual to offset the center axis of the differential below the center axis of a crankshaft for the purpose of preventing its interference with other parts around the engine.
Thus, the center axis of the differential lies far from and lower than the crankshaft axis, and therefore the projecting final drive unit cannot be effectively rigidly supported so as to be allowed to vibrate particularly under upward and downward flexural vibrations. This degrades the upward and downward flexural vibration characteristics of the entire power plant. To this problem, it has been proposed to increase the thickness of the housing of the power plant or to increase the number of connection points for joining the engine to the transaxle. However, such measures unavoidably increase the weight of the power plant while lowering the operational efficiency in assembly of the power plant.